ANALYSIS
Many Americans are expressing concerns about the rise of Islam in the country, and that has led to some heated moments recently in Dearborn, Michigan. Different approaches have been on display as protesters gathered for a “Christian Crusader March”; a pastor confronted the city council for Islamic law; while on another front, Christian ministers are reaching Muslims with the gospel and discipling those who turn to Christ.
Last week, a tense rally against “Islamification” in Dearborn, led by conservative activist Jake Lang and Detroit Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, degenerated into disorderly conduct as counter-protesters clashed with them and police arrested 22 people.
Meanwhile, two Christian-faith leaders espoused their view that Islam in their city represents a mission field that’s ripe for spiritual harvest.
A staff member at a church near Dearborn, JonMark Baker, serves ministries that seek to share the gospel with Muslims. He hosts a podcast that, before the march, offered a pastor’s perspective on the city’s Muslim population.
Baker, affiliated with an Assembly of God Church (AG) in nearby Canton, believes most conversations about Islam in America focus on identity and politics. Christians, he said, should first view their Muslim neighbors through a gospel lens, then a political lens, especially where immigration laws apply.
“Some of the things that are being shared about Muslims in Dearborn just do not reflect my experience,” Baker said on the Minor Prophets podcast.
As an ideology and religion, Islam should be resisted because it’s an evil, destructive heresy introduced by a false prophet, according to Baker.
It’s important, he said, to distinguish between what Islam teaches and people who call themselves Muslims.
“When we begin to dehumanize people according to a group they belong to, we stop seeing them as individuals created in the image of God. We stop seeing them as people for whom Christ was brutally crucified and sacrificed,” Baker said.
Pastor Luke Halford, a friend of Baker, shepherds former Muslims in Dearborn who now follow Jesus and are members of his church.
“I have met them; I know them, and I go and teach at his church. This is a friend whose life I have observed,” Baker said of Halford and the AG congregation, Springwells, he leads.
Laboring for 15 years in East Dearborn as a pastor, Halford believes his church and others should pursue a path to toward fulfilling the Great Commission – not a road marked with political anger or protest of Islam.
Before a contentious meeting of the Dearborn City Council with Lang and Sewell speaking against Islam, Halford called the situation an opportunity to reach Muslims with the gospel.
“Rather than viewing our city’s large immigrant and Muslim population primarily as a political or cultural challenge, I see it as an extraordinary opportunity to participate in Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations,” Halford posted to Springwells’ social media.
His statement, titled Dearborn As A Great Commission Opportunity, includes expressions of gratitude to God for bringing the nations to Dearborn, where churches are tasked with making Christian disciples of their Muslim neighbors.
“It’s hard to go into Yemen as a missionary or get into some of these countries and build genuine relationships. But God has brought people from these nations to our doorstep. Why would I see that as something to run from? I see it as something to thank God for,” Halford said.
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The gospel, he believes, convicts Christians to change their views of Muslims. They are people, made in God’s image – never to be viewed as problems or objects of hate – but as humanity loved by Jesus.
The weapons of Christians’ spiritual warfare destroy strongholds, not people. “Rather than joining political demonstrations or confrontational evangelism, I believe Christians should move toward the people they are concerned about,” Halford said.
“But I have seen Arab people come to know Jesus because of the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and not loving their lives even unto death,” he continued.
The answer, Halford added, is entering communities of significant cultural and religious change with courage, compassion and the gospel, living with and breaking bread among them.
He believes, “Dearborn itself can become an example of what happens when Christians embrace rather than fear the missionary opportunity in front of them.”
“We don’t need Christians standing outside the community yelling at people they don’t know. We need Christians willing to know their neighbors, serve their neighbors, eat with their neighbors, and tell their neighbors about Jesus,” he said.
Halford challenges Christians concerned about cultural change. “Don’t move away. Move closer. If you really want to see positive change in the West, stop moving away from Dearborn; come here and live a life out loud that reflects the love of Christ in you,” he said.
Lang, on the other hand, said the march against “Islamification” was to prevent invaders from taking over the nation and Dearborn.
And Sewell, a pastor who prayed for Donald Trump at 180 Church in Detroit and then at the president’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., harshly criticized Dearborn’s civic leaders for racism against black people and for favoring Islam.
“We are one nation under God, indivisible, the God of the Bible and of the Lord Jesus Christ,” Sewell told the Dearborn councilmembers, accusing them of running the city “under sharia law.”
As a spiritual life director at Roots Church, Baker acknowledges people might question the success of reaching Muslims in Dearborn, given its demographics.
Former Muslims who now follow Jesus – most of them rejected by family – are welcome in Baker’s home, he said.
Bake said that, unlike the anti-Islam protest march that degraded Muslims, “The call of Jesus is not to dehumanize these people but to offer them the gospel.”
He said Christians should resist Islam because we love Muslims, not because we’re sick of them invading our space. “As soon as our space becomes more valuable than the gospel itself, we have lost the point of what it is to really be a follower of Jesus,” Baker said.
